Like many rural counties in America, Baldwin County is getting old in a hurry.
Between 1995 and 2025, Baldwin County’s 65-and-older population rose from 4,547 to 8,704, an increase of 91.4 percent, according to the Georgia Department of Public health’s data.
The DPH recently released its “mortality” data for 2025.
Baldwin’s aging population was reflected in the number of deaths in 2025. That number was placed at 576.
In 1995, by contrast, there were 382 deaths in Baldwin County, according to the data. Keep in mind that Baldwin County’s overall population has remained stagnant in the last 30 years. Baldwin’s population was placed at 42,709 in 1995 and 44,029 in 2025.
To a lesser extent, the increase in Baldwin County’s older population can be attributed to Lake Sinclair and this area becoming more and more of a retirement destination. Baby boomers, however, are the big reason.
The United States experienced a population explosion after World War II. Now, the oldest baby boomers are turning 80 in 2026.
A milestone was reached in 2014.
For the first time in the DPH’s data, as well as the first time since lord knows when, the number of “deaths” in Baldwin County actually outnumbered number of “births,” according to the DPH data.
In 1995, for example, Baldwin County recorded 529 births and 382 deaths.
Contrast that to last year, when Baldwin County tallied 576 deaths and 405 births. Demographics is an entire field of study in social science. At its core, however, it’s simple. There are exactly two ways that a county can gain population and grow: A) Have more births than deaths; or B) More people move into the county than out the county.
Unless “B” improves in the future, what you’ll have in Baldwin County is a stagnant population, a stagnant economy and a stagnant tax base.